'She couldn't help but think the worst. And she wasn't always wrong' - Muggsy Bogues admitted to infidelity during his playing days

During his 14 seasons in the league, Muggsy Bogues didn't have to worry about attracting romantic partners. The Maryland native enjoyed fame, success, and significant wealth—his NBA salary alone totaled nearly $18 million—which certainly helped him gain attention.

In his autobiography "Muggsy: My Life from a Kid in the Projects to the Godfather of Small Ball," the retired point talked about becoming a target for certain women trying to "honey-trap" him. Unsurprisingly, this was a significant concern for his then-wife, Kim.

However, things eventually escalated when Bogues occasionally responded to advances from other women. Ultimately, this infidelity, among other issues, led Kim to leave her husband, who was playing for the Charlotte Hornets at the time.

"I had a lot of fans, and many of them were women. Kim called them my 'groupies.' It always bothered her when they would come up to me after games…she hated all the female hangers-on that would inevitably pay me attention. Eventually, she couldn't help but think the worst. And she wasn't always wrong. Trust collapsed, and before the 1995–96 season, Kim left me, taking the kids," wrote Bogues.

The journey of Muggsy and Kim

Muggsy and Kim first met during a reunion game at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School in Baltimore, Maryland. The varsity team played against alums, including Bogues, who had attended the school before heading to Wake Forest College in 1983. While winning the game that day was great, he shared that the real highlight was meeting his "soulmate" and "future wife," with the two tying the knot in 1989.

That same year, the 5'3" guard entered the NBA after being selected 12th overall by the Washington Bullets, making him the shortest player in league history. Off the court, things also seemed to be going well, as the couple had welcomed three children by 1995: Ty, Tyisha, and Brittney.

However, Kim handled most of the parenting duties while Bogues was frequently away playing for the Hornets, the team he had just signed a new contract with. The "Godfather of Small Ball" later acknowledged that his repeated absence, along with his "unseemly behavior," put a strain on their marriage.

Ultimately, Kim made the difficult decision to leave, taking the kids to Huntersville, a suburb of Charlotte—a choice Muggs would come to understand over time.

"I didn't give her much of a choice after a while," he reflected. "Kim didn't marry me seven years before to stay home while I roamed the country. She married me because she wanted to make a life with me, but that life was eroding in front of us."

Helping his brother

While Muggsy was now without his wife and kids, another person became increasingly important in his life: his older brother, Chucky, who was deep into drugs at the time. The two had lost their father to addiction, and Bogues remembered losing many others to the same struggle.

So, after he was contacted by their mother, he welcomed Chucky to move in with him and made a real effort to support him.

"I knew I had to help him. I threw out the liquor bottles. I put non-alcoholic beer in the fridge. I checked the guest room and made it safe for him to go through rehab right there—cold turkey. He didn't want to go to a rehab center for six months. To him, that felt like prison," recounted Muggs.

During that time, the Hornets' playmaker quietly dealt with the emotional fallout from his failed marriage, not wanting anyone within the NBA franchise to find out. To add to his struggles, he had to watch his brother suffer from severe withdrawal symptoms after going cold turkey.

"When he wasn't feeling well, he would shake. It brought tears to my eyes. He couldn't control it. He threw up in the living room. I'd clean it up. Sometimes Chuckie would scream, saying he was getting the demons out of his chest. I'd bring him dinner, and he couldn't eat it. I wondered if Chuckie staying with me was good for him," Muggsy wrote.

Happy endings, after all

In the end, both Bogues and his brother managed to overcome their challenges for the better.

The former WNBA head coach shared how he witnessed Chucky's remarkable improvement firsthand, noting that he not only "stopped throwing up" but also began to scream less, eventually reaching a point when there was no screaming at all. They both realized that the grip of addiction was loosening when, as "Muggs" recalled, "Chucky stopped me, looked me in the eye, and said he wasn't going to mess up again."

Going through those tough times together really strengthened their bond.

"We'd gotten through the worst of the storm together. I hugged my brother for his hard work. I was proud of him. I knew it could easily have been me if a few things in life had gone the other way. I loved Chuckie and I was grateful we'd done it together," concluded the former NBA player, who retired in 2001.

Bogues' relationship with Kim, who has worked for the television network HBO, also eventually came to a happy ending. After their official divorce in 1997, they spent ten years apart but eventually realized they still loved each other. After reuniting, the couple remarried in 2015, and now they seem happier than ever, having learned from their past mistakes.

Muggs now shares these lessons with his children, being an "open book" for them. The 59-year-old reassures them that "failure is a part of life," but he emphasizes that what truly matters is how you respond afterward.